Hang Ah Tea Room (Chinatown, SF)

Hang Ah Tea Room (Chinatown, SF)

When I go to Chinatown, I'm frequently handed a flyer for this place. On day I was craving some pot stickers (fried dumplings, kuo teh in Chinese I think) so I checked it out. It was surprisingly good. The pot stickers in particular were good--not too heavy or greasy as is sometimes the case. My one criticism is the lack of vinegar on the table to create the standard dipping sauce: equal portions more or less of soy sauce, vinegar and hot chile oil (I'm sure they would have got me some if I had flagged down the busy waiter and asked). I also had a couple of pork buns (steamed lumps of dough the size of a hamburger roll with some BBQ pork with BBQ sauce in the center). They were good too. Looking around the room, it appeared the Dim Sum Lunch advertised on their flyer was popular--a selection of a shrimp dumpling, a pork bun, one or two pot stickers and small portions of BBQ pork and fried rice for $7.95.

The entrance is actually in a little alley off Sacramento St. between Stockton and Grant (as the flyer says, "next to Chinese playground"). It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside is very pleasant.

I've eaten there for years and it has been consistently good. I first went there with a colleague who heard about it from his French relatives, who had read about it in a French tour guide to California.

Years ago the entrance way was covered with Miss Chinatown pictures, some going back 50 years or so.